A footwear device which connects the foot of a user to an appliance such as a snow ski, in-line wheel system and ice blades, while permitting substantially unrestricted articulation of the elements of the foot associated with movement between bipedal (neutral) and monopedal (pronated) stances, is described in WO 93/14656A. The device described in WO 93/14656A, is shown in FIGS. 1 and 2. It is generally indicated at 2000 and comprises four primary elements, i.e. a rigid base 2100, a medial forefoot counter 2201, a heel counter, generally shown at 2300, and a forefoot/midfoot compression member generally shown at 2400. In some applications, a leg member, generally shown at 2500, is added to the four primary elements.
The four primary elements are interrelated and interdependent in terms of producing an overall effect of controlling the position and displacements of the foot of a user relative to the rigid base 2100. When added to the four primary elements, the leg member 2500 acts in concert with the rigid base 2100 to control the movement of the leg relative to rigid base 2100.
The forefoot/midfoot compression member 2400 acts to apply a primary force to the dorsum of the foot which force is directed perpendicular to the rigid base 2100 and directed posteriorly towards the heel counter 2300. The forefoot/midfoot compression member 2400 simultaneously acts to apply a secondary force to the superolateral aspect of the first metatarsal directed inferomedially towards medial forefoot counter 2201. The primary force compresses the arches of the foot in a manner which mimics the compression of the arches of the foot resulting from the weight of the superincumbent body in bipedal stance. The heel counter 2300 establishes the rearward or posterior position of the heel of the user on the rigid base 2100. The secondary force acts to control the position of the head of the first metatarsal as it advances and recedes on the rigid base 2100 as the arches of the foot compress and decompress when moving between bipedal and monopedal stances.
Thus, the footwear device 2000 confines the foot of the user within an arrangement of structure from which it cannot escape once the device has applied a compressive force to the arches of the foot of the user. At the same time the device creates an environment wherein the forces applied to the device by the elements of the foot when moving between bipedal and monopedal stances are significantly greater than any opposing forces applied by the device to the foot so that the animation of the elements of the foot required to move between bipedal and monopedal stances is substantially unrestrained.
The present invention comprises further improvements to the footwear device described above.